15 managerial appointments – the verdict

May 23, 2011

Domenico di Carlo

Back in August, ZM published a list of the 15 most intriguing managerial appointments of the summer.

All were taking new jobs with speculation about how well they would fare. Some have done brilliantly, but more have been a disappointment, and an amazing number are no longer in their position. Here, then, is a summary of how each has performed.

15. Domenico di Carlo, Sampdoria

What was said - “Sampdoria have Champions League football (as long as they progress past the qualification round…it is the lethal combination of Antonio Cassano and Giampaolo Pazzini that Samp are basing their side around.”

How Sampdoria did – Relegated. Di Carlo was sacked in March.

Sampdoria managed to blow their Champions League hopes in the qualification round with a late concession against Werder Bremen, and by January they’d lost both Cassano and Pazzini. The relegation is only partly the fault of di Carlo, who was in 9th position at the midway point in the league, and 14th place by the time he left the club, and Sampdoria ended up 18th. Losing the star strike partnership was a huge loss, and Samp went on a five game run without scoring a goal that coincided with Pazzini’s departure.

Rating – 3/10.

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14. Michael Preud’homme, Twente

What was said – “Preud’homme has a small squad to work with, and the pressure of competing in the league and Champions League, McClaren might turn out to be a very difficult act to follow.”

How Twente did – Knocked out of the Champions League at the group stage, but a second-placed league finish, after losing to Ajax in a final day decider.

After starting the season with two 0-0s, it seemed that Preud’homme was going to struggle, but a good title charge and a victory in the Dutch Cup final means he can be regarded as a success. Slipping from 1st to 2nd in the league was obviously a disappointment, but considering that Twente lost many of their first-choice players from the championship season, it was a decent effort. The task now is to build the squad, and try and make a bigger impression on the Champions League, if Twente can get past the qualifiers.

Rating – 7/10.

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13. Paulo Sérgio, Sporting

What was said – “Somewhat of a rebuilding job needed at Sporting…a title challenge is probably beyond Sporting this term”

How Sporting did – Another third place finish, miles away from the title winners Porto, and disappointment in the cup competitions too. Sergio was sacked in February.

Sporting’s main problems have been off the pitch this season, but there was on-pitch turmoil too. Sergio never really seemed sure of his best formation or starting XI, and it produced a disjointed, scrappy side that lacked cohesion. A title challenge was never likely, whilst getting into a European place always seemed assured, so perhaps judgement on Sergio came down to the derby games, with little else to play for – Sporting lost both games 2-0 to Benfica.

Rating – 4/10

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12. Avram Grant, West Ham

What was said – “The West Ham job is a decent opportunity for him to further his career”

How West Ham did – Relegated, 20th place out of 20. Grant was sacked shortly after the relegation was confirmed.

Grant was hardly helped by being spectacularly undermined by West Ham’s board, but that doesn’t excuse West Ham’s poor performances all season. Grant appeared clueless tactically – with reports, like in his Chelsea days, that the players were essentially managing themselves – whilst midfielder Scott Parker seemed to be the one giving dressing room team talks. It’s difficult to understand quite what Grant was actually doing at the club, and it’s equally difficult to imagine him getting another Premier League job soon, having taken consecutive sides to 20th place in the Premier League, after the failure at Portsmouth last season.

Rating – 2/10

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11. Bernd Schuster, Besiktas

What was said – “A tremendously underrated manager who has experienced some level of success almost everywhere he has managed.”

How Besiktas did – Spent the campaign around 6th place, nowhere near a title challenge. Schuster left the club in March.

No success here. Schuster spent his time bringing in big name players, many Portuguese – Ricardo Quaresma, Guti, Hugo Almeida, Manuel Fernandes and Simao. He combined these acquisitions with an attacking style of play, but there were various reports that he didn’t have control of the dressing room, and he chopped and changed systems with no regard for continuity. The sacking was no surprise.

Rating – 3/10

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10. Andre Villas Boas, Porto

Andre Villas Boas

What was said – “The new Mourinho? That’s the expected label for every promising new Portuguese manager, but Villas Boas is more likely to be Mourinho-esque than any other.”

How Porto did – Treble winners, and unbeaten all season in the league.

An astonishingly successful season for Villas Boas, where he transformed Porto from also-rans last year, to amongst the best sides in Europe, despite getting rid of two key players – Bruno Alves and Raul Meireles. Porto were rampant against the smaller Portuguese league sides, and often against genuinely good teams too – Benfica were thrashed 5-0, Villarreal were beaten 5-1. The one disappointment is that we didn’t get to see Porto in the Champions League – hopefully the squad will stay largely intact next season, with Villas Boas still at the helm.

Rating – 10/10

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9. Jean Tigana, Bordeaux

What was said – “Tigana’s managerial career has been something of a disappointment…transfer activity has been quiet – largely a good thing, since Tigana’s main concern was keeping Yoann Gourcuff.”

How Bordeaux did – Midtable for the entire campaign. Tigana left earlier this month.

Gourcuff left, and Bordeaux never looked like challenging for the Champions League places. Strangely, they did well against the top sides in the league – they drew both games with Lille, and beat both PSG and Lyon, but the performance over the course of the season was poor. Bordeaux generally dominated possession but frequently looked clueless in the final third, and Tigana’s career has taken another blow.

Rating – 4/10

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8. Max Allegri, Milan

What was said – “A tremendously difficult job…it’s difficult to see how he’ll be able to transform this Milan squad into genuine title challengers unless there is significant investment in the side.”

How Milan did – Champions for the first time since 2004.

Significant investment arrived – Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Robinho and Kevin-Prince Boateng joined late in the summer, whilst Antonio Cassano, Mark van Bommel, Nicola Legrottaglie and Urby Emanuelson followed in January. Allegri’s side were unquestionably the best side in Serie A over the course of the season, combining a familiar base to the side with revolving door of talent upfront. The limp display against Tottenham in the Champions League suggests that this wasn’t a great side, but Allegri deserves praise for turning around Milan so quickly.

Rating – 8/10.

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Roy Hodgson

7. Roy Hodgson, Liverpool

What was said – “Hodgson has finally found himself taking charge of a big club in his home country…we can be sure that Liverpool will be well-organised and positionally disciplined.”

What happened – Liverpool spent most of Hodgson’s reign in the bottom half, until he was sacked in January, and Kenny Dalglish took them up the table.

Well-organised and positionally disciplined they may have been, but Liverpool were frequently toothless upfront, and played very poor football that infuriated Liverpool supporters. Liverpool’s best displays under him were against the top sides – an opening day draw against Arsenal that should have been a win, a narrow defeat to Manchester United, and a controlled 2-0 win over Chelsea. This just suggested that Hodgson’s methods suit an underdog rather than a side looking to challenge high up the table, and his attitude away from home was rather defeatist. Hodgson has since taken charge of West Brom, where he has experienced success, but both he and Liverpool are better apart.

Rating – 3/10

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6. Gigi Delneri, Juventus

What was said – “Another crack at managing a ‘big’ club for a manager who has been tremendously successful at clubs with slightly lower ambitions.”

How Juventus did – A final position of 7th. Delneri was sacked this weekend.

Juventus had only lost twice by the end of 2010, but a disastrous January and February saw the side slip down the table and out of Champions League contention. The difference in performance in the first half and second half of the season was stark, almost as if opposition managers were able to work out Delneri’s rather predictable 4-4-2 formation after one attempt. The sacking came as no surprise, and like Hodgson, it seems Delneri is not suited to big clubs.

Rating – 3/10

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5. Michael Laudrup, Mallorca

What was said - “Mallorca finished in fifth last season, just one point off Champions League football…they are in a prime position to push on.”

How Mallorca did – 17th place, one point off relegation.

It’s mystifying how Mallorca managed to end up in such a state – they were in the top half of the table with five games to go, but an end-of-season collapse meant they almost ended up relegated. Like Tigana, Laudrup showed an ability to compete with the big sides, as Mallorca drew with Barcelona and Real Madrid, and beat Valencia, but there were also heavy defeats and Mallorca rarely showed the attacking football Laudrup had promised.

Rating – 4/10

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Sinisa Mihajlovic

4. Sinisa Mihajlovic, Fiorentina

What was said – “His reputation as a player hardly makes him the most obvious candidate to become a successful coach…we might see Mihajlovic’s on-pitch behaviour come back to haunt him.”

How Fiorentina did – Just about ended the season in the top half.

Major injury problems disrupted Fiorentina’s season – star man Stevan Jovetic missed the entire campaign, whilst the likes of Riccardo Montolivo and Sebastien Frey were also out for long periods. Taking this into account, Fiorentina did OK, but it was a season that will be forgotten quickly – with nothing to play for after the early Coppa Italia defeat, Mihajovic’s performance is slightly difficult to judge, but he’ll probably be given another season.

Rating – 5/10

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3. Steve McClaren, Wolfsburg

What was said – “He is in charge of a tremendously talented bunch of players…it’s not unrealistic to expect a title challenge.”

How Wolfsburg did – Bottom half for the entire campaign. McClaren was dismissed in February.

A tremendous chance gone to waste. McClaren had rebuilt his managerial reputation after the success with Twente, and now finds himself back being linked to West Ham, a second tier club, having been at Wolfsburg, a side who won the championship as recently as 2009. McClaren was able to bring in players, but had a bad relationship with Edin Dzeko, who eventually left in January, and star signing Diego rarely showed his true quality. A run of seven draws at the turn of the year suggested a lack of confidence and belief, and McClaren’s poor showing even resulted in an impressive ‘umbrella protest’ from the Wolfsburg fans. He left the club just one point off relegation, they ended up two points off relegation.

Rating – 2/10

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Jose Mourinho

2. Jose Mourinho, Real Madrid

What was said – “He has played down expectations, notably saying “I am successful at clubs, generally in the second year,” a more modest introduction than his opening pronouncements when arriving in London and Milan.”

How Real did – Second place in the league, a Champions League exit to Barcelona, but a Copa del Rey in the bag.

Mourinho knew how difficult his task was, and dethroning the greatest club side of this generation proved too much in the first year. The 5-0 defeat at the Nou Camp was unquestionably Mourinho’s lowest point as a manager, and whilst he recovered to win the Copa del Rey, Real’s performance against Barcelona in the Champions League was disappointing, and Mourinho’s subsequent excuses rather sad. The side is in a good position to push on – Mesut Ozil has been fantastic, Cristiano Ronaldo has been prolific and the defensive part of the side is in good shape, and assuming Mourinho is around, they should strongly challenge for the title.

Rating – 6/10

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1. Rafael Benitez, Inter

What was said – “He’s in the difficult position of taking charge after the most successful season in Inter’s history, and since they have won the past five Serie A titles, anything but a sixth will see Benitez ridiculed.”

How Inter did – 7th in Serie A when Benitez left, 2nd by the end of the season

Benitez took charge of a side that appeared physically and mentally exhausted, and the amazing stream of injuries he had to deal with was probably no coincidence. Benitez supporters point to the injury crisis as the main reason he failed, but Benitez actually dealt quite impressively with that – his problem was that when he had something close to his full side available, Inter rarely played well. There was a run of eight games where Inter only scored five goals, whilst they failed to score against fellow big clubs – Juventus, Roma and Milan all kept clean sheets against Benitez’s Inter. He won 40% of his league games in charge, whilst his replacement Leonardo won 74%.

Wesley Sneijder didn’t like his tactics – “I got frustrated under Benitez….he wanted me to play as a striker,” whilst Cristian Chivu threatened to walk off the pitch unless the forwards started defending. Amongst all this, Benitez did manage to win the World Club Cup, but it’s been a disappointing couple of seasons for one of Europe’s top coaches.

99 Responses to “ 15 managerial appointments – the verdict ”

Well, because he handled the injury crisis reasonably well and won the World Club Cup, which even if it was a simple trophy to win, is still a trophy.

Lorenzo on May 23, 2011 at 4:37 pm

He also won the italian supercup, surely a harder trophy to conquer than the
FIFA club world cup (roma>mazembe).
A good tactician but definitely not a good man manager. None of the big names of the team trusted him, something that if I remember correctly happened at
Liverpool as well.

RedMan on May 23, 2011 at 5:54 pm

Rafa was sacked because he made an ultimatum where he demanded more players after the Club World Cup. Before that, he also managed to win the Italian Supercup and qualified for quarterfinals in CL in 2 games to spare with that small and injury hit squad. Rafa didn’t get to purchase any player he wanted, that’s why he issued the ultimatum (rather unwise i think), but nonetheless, i don’t think anyone would argue that Inter needed more players.

After Leonardo came in, he got the backing by Moratti to get a number of 1st team players like: (Correct me if I am wrong, I am not an Inter fan)

Nagatomo
Pazzini
Rannochia
Kharja

Partly, Moratti knows football and he knows he needed to invest (especially before the Financial Fair Play). He probably just didn’t like Rafa’s attitude, and rightly so.

So I don’t think Inter’s poor season was entirely down to Rafa, and had Rafa got those players, you never know, maybe he could’ve done better than Leonardo. Surely, Rafa is the better tactician among the 2. Arguably, Sneijder played poor not only because he was out of position (which I dont agree), but look at all the Dutch players who went to the latter stages of WC2010, how many have had an excellent 1st half of the season?

dustygator on May 24, 2011 at 4:09 am

Rafa was right in the end.

“I deserve respect. I’ve shouldered all the blows and all the responsabilities but in August the club promised me three players but no-one arrived,” fumed Benitez. “Now there are three roads: either the club starts a project and buys four players right now in January or we continue like this with the coach who is the only person to blame or otherwise the president speaks to my agent and we find a solution.

They bought four players and look what happened. It wasn’t Leonardo that helped them to their second half surge, it was a combination of players getting healthy and their January transfers. Pazzini scored 11 goals in the second half of the season, Rannochia became a first choice CB and Nagatomo and Kharja each made 10 starts.

Not to mention many of their players had career years last season and weren’t going to repeat that this year or most likely for the rest of their careers (Maicon, Milito, Sneijder, etc).

Josef on May 24, 2011 at 3:19 pm

and with your comment, the pendulum swings too far in the other direction.

Of course, Benitez was never as bad in Milan as he was made out to be, his team hampered by injury and fatigue. At the same time, he underperformed significantly (<40% record with the champions league winners) and his methods/tactics have always mystified me. Not surprised that he wasn't popular among the Nerazzuri players.

Tapori on May 24, 2011 at 10:29 pm

You know something is wrong with your managing style when the same group of players that contributed to the barren run under Benitez then managed to come 2nd under the nice-guy but comparatively tactically inferior Leonardo.

Look, we all know Benitez can coach a side for games like the Chess Master he probably is but Football, team Building and Man Management are all aspects that he seems to neglect time and time again.

Liverpool – Inherited the side from Houllier and did well. When it came to building his own he came close but didn’t manage to push on from the CL success.

Valencia – Inherited the core/key players of his squad and was the zenith of his career.

And I agree with Blake, Benitez can’t get more than 2, as you’e noticed he only won 40% of his games, than Leonardo (an average manager himself) came and won nearly twice as much. His side never played well (with the exception of the first half of first game against Tott’ham but even there he failed, he couldn’t keep his players concentrated and nearly wasted 4goals and 1 player advantage). If he was in charge of some midtable team that would be good but he took absolutely the best side in the league and one of the best in the world …

Didn’t say he was Portuguese – I said many were Portuguese, and then gave a list of players he signed

anonymous on May 23, 2011 at 7:33 pm

Leonardo win % is inflated because he set out to win or lose. he also lost a lot of matches they never should have

Josef on May 24, 2011 at 3:21 pm

I do not see how this amounts to inflation, and his methods are vastly preferable than the “let’s sit back and try to make sure we don’t lose, even if it means (a) the game is boring to watch and (b) we’re unlikely to win” school of management.

JT on May 23, 2011 at 4:05 pm

Great end of season roundup. We’re reminded once again how fickle the managerial job is.

Thanks, indeed. Wonder how many of these clubs regret not sticking with the manager before this one…

Forza Juve on May 23, 2011 at 8:33 pm

Chelsea sure will…

Bruce on May 24, 2011 at 10:10 am

Honest question here but, will they? (Regret sacking Ancelotti).

I only ask because it appears general consensus that Ancelotti is not good at rebuilding teams, which is most likely what Chelsea need nowadays. I admit that my knowldge of Italian Football is limited, but it appears that his job with A.C Milan was a continuation of older stars rather than a creation of a young team (taking nothing away from his job with AC).

I do believe Ancelotti is a fantastic manager, but pherhaps he was brought in to win the CL with an old squad – which he failed to do, and now the rebuilding process is better handled by someone else.

Though his purchase of Ramires (which unlike Torres I do believe was his choice) seems to indicate a rebuilding process. As to whether Luiz was Ancelotti’s purchase I’m undecided on.

Josef on May 24, 2011 at 3:25 pm

“it appears general consensus that Ancelotti is not good at rebuilding teams”

You said in the comments for the original article that you’d considered putting Neil Lennon in but didn’t due to the European exit. What are your thoughts on how he’s done?

I’d say a 7 or an 8 out of 10. He’s managed to take a truly atrocious Celtic side devoid of fight and talent (the mess left by Mowbray last season) and turn it into a good team, which has challenged strongly for the league (ending up losing out by one point), reaching the League Cup final (losing to Rangers in extra time) and winning the Scottish cup (knocking out Rangers on the way.) His signings have been largely very good, he’s moulded a lot of new players into a solid and cohesive unit which plays good football – in spite of having key players injured for large sections of the season (Kayal pretty much until late december, Maloney for most of the winter until about April and Ledley for the run-in.)

Given that he’s managed to do that in his first full season in charge, up against Walter Smith, with essentially a new team and up against a Rangers team which – whilst hasn’t had the same financial power in the last couple of years – was significantly more expensive to assemble, I’d say that he’s done an incredible job.

The rest I agree with – other than perhaps Benitez, who may deserve less than a 3.

Well, I think that’s fair. Took over a side who had finished 2nd, they finished 2nd. Took them to the semis of the CL, fair enough, and won the Copa. But I think 6 is fair.

Tomek on May 23, 2011 at 4:36 pm

Semis of CL is quite of a achievement, no? But yeah, 6/10 sounds fair, personally I maybe would give him more, probably only because he exceeded rather low expectations I had for him before the season begun.

I guess it was, but they had a fairly easy route. I’m not sure he’d view that as success, or failure, probably just neutral

unclesam on May 23, 2011 at 8:18 pm

Imo, he deserves at least a 7 or 8. The reason we ended up 2nd was mostly because of pure unluckiness. We were denied penalties against Deportivo, Osasuna, Mallorca, Sporting, all games we drew or lost and would’ve been changed if the ref hadn’t missed clear handballs in the penalty area.

Mourinho’s record against top teams is impeccable. I’m pretty sure we won every game against opponents placed 3-8. The road to the Copa-final was also very hard, we had to defeat Atlético, Sevilla, Levante, Murcia while Barcelona played the likes of Bilbao, Almeria, Betis, Ceuta.

Taking Madrid to their first Champions League semi-final since 2003 is also noteworthy.

Sure, the 5-0 loss in the Camp Nou was terrible, terrible but I don’t think that the scores represent what the game looked like for the first 60 minutes (before David Villa’s offside goal that made it 3-0 and sealed Barca’s victory and utterly demoralizing our players). In the four next El Clásico’s we won one, lost one and drew two, our loss was clearly more the ref’s fault than Mou’s, and I also think that we deserved more than what we ended up with in the games that we drew.

Jordan on May 23, 2011 at 8:37 pm

The loss in the 5-0 was Mou’s fault. He used 2 holding players instead of 3, like he did in the 4 clasicos of the April/May.

By taking off Ozil at half time and bringing on Lass, he pretty much admitted that he got his formation wrong at the get go.

Josef on May 24, 2011 at 3:36 pm

I cannot believe you have the temerity to claim that Real Madrid (of which you are not actually a part, despite your “we”) lost the league and the balance of the classicos as a result of referees.

I am not a Barca fan. I like La Liga. But I find the unmitigated gall of Barca and Madrid supporters arguing over how the refs are out to screw them completely sickening, especially since that just papers over how Madrid and Barca screw every other team in the league 9 times as hard with their woefully unjust sharing out of TV revenues.

I don’t think the refs shafted Madrid, but on the other hand I think that it might be more fair if both sides of the duopoly had to contend with legitimately biased refs in every game the played.

In any event, Mourinho certainly deserves no better than what Mr. Cox gave him, and I’d argue for downgrading him on the basis of the poisonous atmosphere that he did so much to contribute to, as amply documented in Sid Lowe’s reporting for the Guardian and SI.

Don’t forget UNICEF who single handedly prevented them winning the champions league!

Falahk on May 26, 2011 at 10:33 am

if anything the refs have been doing both Barca and Real favors all season

rahul on May 23, 2011 at 4:17 pm

is there only defensive side to a game . i am sorry i am not convinced by mouriniho’s performance . why are barca so successful so much because they can open up any defense and that is why team are afraid to commit players and play at back foot their offense is their best defense and that is the reason why team are afraid of them . sadly for me i hadnt been too much impressed by mouriniho’s work on the offensive front . the team still looks dull and the kind of cohesion that is wanted is not there in his front players or you can say that he hasnt been able to create that while barca has it . even at inter or chelsea his style of football was boring and he was grinding results rather than playing attractive football and that is why i wouldnt like him to be at the helm at man utd .

Maybe, but they did score over 100 goals in La Liga, and won games 6-1, 6-1, 5-1, 7-0, 6-3, 6-2, 8-1…

rahul on May 23, 2011 at 4:39 pm

if you have a all star team then you expect them to score and your real test comes when you play against the best and sadly for me they failed there they cheated against the spurs and when they same thing came to bite them they cried like a baby .to be honest some of the results were at the end of the season and what about zaragoza in which he lost or even hercules sorry man just because you say i cannot take it . you left the braga coach he also did a great job .

unclesam on May 23, 2011 at 8:31 pm

How did they fail? This is hilarious. How did they cheat against Spurs? Crouch lunged for Marcelo’s legs twice, that’s his fault, it’s a clear red card. Pepe didn’t touch Dani Alves and he was going for the ball in a 50/50 duel, there’s a clear difference (1. he was going for the ball, 2. there was no contact, 3. he only got one chance, Crouch got two).

Madrid won against all the teams ranked 3-8 in La Liga home and away. In the CL they defeated the Italian champions at home and drew away because of two offside goals. Against Lyon they should’ve won but the ref awarded a faulty freekick that was also moved forward around 10 yards. At home we destroyed Lyon. We destroyed Spurs and would’ve won with 11 or 10 men. We also won away when we were basically resting. Against Barcelona we won the final, got cheated out of the semi-finals and drew in the league.

Josef on May 24, 2011 at 3:49 pm

you epitomize the ugly dynamic that Low discusses whereby you’ve become convinced that RM players are non-fouling angels with hearts as pure as the driven snow, while your opponents are evil cheating blackguards.

In your entire rundown, you only mention other teams’ goals when you think they were illegitimate, which, surprise surprise, you seem to think about each goal.

3rnald0 on May 24, 2011 at 5:39 pm

inter thrashed barcelona in the semi first leg and comfortably won the final…hardly grinding out results and these are in the toughest games!

Lorenzo on May 23, 2011 at 4:54 pm

Yes ZM but he lost la liga against the poorest side of the league (almeria,
osasuna, deportivo, sporting gijon) and in my opinion Madrid’s inability to score against these teams shows mourinho’s poor movitation skills. You didn’t mention the home defeats with gijon and zaragoza, which ended Mourinho’s home record.
The 8-1 and 7-0 victiories just prove the overall mediocrity of la liga.

Well maybe, but I’m not sure what else to judge them on. You can’t really demonstrate it any other way other than the league they compete in for 38 games across the season.

Forza Juve on May 24, 2011 at 1:54 am

Well yeah but my point was I guess a slightly unrelated topic, namely the goal-fest happy nature of La Liga vs. more defensively sound teams of Italy and the EPL. In La Liga, it’s typical to see 6-1s, 7-0s, 5-0s etc at least a few times a month. It’s either the defenses are horrible, the teams/managers play with such an incredibly attacking mentality, or the players are all so technically/attackingly gifted… A little bit of everything I suppose?

Like I said though, it’s an unrelated topic, but I just felt like pointing it out a little=) Your above point is valid though ofc, the most valid way to judge them is, no doubt, the league.

rahul on May 23, 2011 at 4:32 pm

avram grant was really unlucky he was given the worst group of players and worst of all he was given the worst defensive players in the entire league and was told to work with them i am sorry for him because he never got the players which he would had liked there were also some players who wanted to leave but couldnt and i doubt about their commitment so all and all he is fairly unlucky .
max allegeri sorry just wasnt satisfied with him . milan won just because the other teams were not good enough and lacked consistency and what about the ucl adventure he clearly struggled in that so all and all he was also a failure .

andres villas boa’s well we will have to wait and watch hasnt seen him much .

wee pat on May 23, 2011 at 4:51 pm

Nonsense, about Grant. He took over a team with a strong spine (Green, Upson, Tomkins, Noble, Parker, Cole) and completely failed to fill in the weak spots or mould them into a team. The squad he inherited was stronger than that of Blackpool, Wigan, Wolves, Birmingham, West Brom, arguably Blackburn, but he finshed lower than all of them. He was crap at Portsmouth, crap at Chelsea and he continued the trend with West Ham…

Yes, silly to say West Ham had the worst group of players. On pure quality they’d be around 14th/15th place in the league.

To describe Allegri as “a failure” is just bonkers. Fair enough if you don’t think he’s been fantastic, but a failure for winning the league? I don’t know what people want from managers these days…

Alain on May 23, 2011 at 6:58 pm

Alex Ferguson, if the writings of the Man United fan above are anything to go by.

Josef on May 24, 2011 at 3:52 pm

and what makes that really funny is that the “milan won just because the other teams were not good enough and lacked consistency” talking point is one that tons of people have said about Man U this year as well and I’m sure he vehemently denied it in that case…

Τ.Ν.Τ. on May 23, 2011 at 7:47 pm

@ZM

Grant, when in Chelsea, did not leave the player managing themselves, but leave managing to Ten Cate, a great tactician, and he just handled the press..
Is it possible nowdays for a side to reach Cl final without a coach?? No way..
Ten Cate has done it twice (barca also 2006)

rahul on May 23, 2011 at 8:20 pm

oh yeah west has good bunch of players i think a list was published by the daily mail as to what could be the value of the players if they go down just compare that to the list of players at the clubs you gave secondly birmingham have gone down except for parker just look out how many are wanted by the big clubs or even the mid table clubs . none . on the other hand look at birmingham gardner , svenson , johnson and many would be very much in demand and not only that they will straight in the first team not just bench warmers . west ham had the worst defense would any manager be comfortable with upson , de costa , and co. to be in their back four . i am sorry but your scouting of a player is very poor .

secondly calling me bonkers on allegri wow . the best competition and the strength of the league is shown as to how their teams fare in that and sadly for me if you mean that getting knocked of in 1st round is enough for you then go on .
i suppose you like people who say appraise you laud you pat you and follow as you say sorry man i cant do that you should be able to take bad with the good .

Anonymous on May 24, 2011 at 8:41 am

Allegri is not just being reviewed here through the Champions League lens. Winning the Scudetto whilst conceding the least number of goals is a job most certainly well done and even more so in his first season with Milan.

derek on May 23, 2011 at 6:42 pm

With the exception of Green and Parker, and possibly Noble, the spine wasn’t good. There was great potential in the team, with Obinna, Hitz and Barrera, but it always failed to deliver. Part of the blame falls on Grant, but I can’t help feeling sorry for him and think the owners undermined both Grant and the club the whole season.

Stuart on May 23, 2011 at 6:47 pm

Not to mention all the winter re-inforcements such as Hitzelsperger, Keane, O’Neil, Ba, Bridge… What was mind-boggling was that a new coach (assuming we can even call Avram a coach) wasn’t brought in at the same time. The squad that finished the season was Top 10 standard. I know the margins were fine this season, and you can blame injuries if you want, but there’s no way any of Blackpool, Birmingham, West Brom, Wigan, Wolves, Newcastle, Blackburn, Stoke or Fulham were in possession of a stronger squad than West Ham. Even Bolton and Sunderland, it’s very marginal. They were all simply managed better (even Blackburn).

RA on May 23, 2011 at 7:04 pm

Avram Grant is pretty rubbish, i’m not sure what he actually does other than look glum.

ZamaFonz on May 24, 2011 at 12:11 pm

rahul must be a manchester united fan who follows only english football..and thinks espnstar channel football pundits are great lolzzz

Josef on May 24, 2011 at 3:58 pm

West Ham had good players, and Milan won their scudetto well, regardless of what happened in the CL. I don’t think you know what you’re talking about, and in fact this is your second straight ridiculous comment (see the prior one at 4:17, which was also torn apart).

I know you try to defend yourself below, but since merely expressing yourself seems to be a bit of a challenge, it was pretty unconvincing.

Three points behind the 9th and 10th place teams. Wild final table. Fifth to 17th is certainly quite a drop, nonetheless.

Thanks for the end of season assessment. Good stuff.

Mati on May 23, 2011 at 6:45 pm

we’d be forgiven to have forgotten about this article…many of these managers left too early for us to make an impression (Di Carlo). clubs are too hasty nowadays when sacking coaches. the zamp-effect, eh?

elsewhere, some managers looked out of place from day 1: Grant, Hodgson, Paulo Sergio. I agree with Mourinho’s “excuse”, that his teams do better in his second season, & think it should apply to all managers. I’m sure managers such as Tigana, Mihajlovic & Preud’homme will (would have, in the case of JT) do better next season. it takes away the surprise factor, with rival managers having a year to get accustomed, a manager can prove himself again. with Villas-Boas & Max Allegri, I have no doubt they’ll be atleast just as good next season. Max has used his trademark hustling trequartista & Villas-Boas is new, young, bright & positive. We’ll see how he performs in the Champions though. I need to study Porto’s transition.

Emery? No way. What did you expect him to do? He finished 3rd which is as high as they were ever going to finish with the two superpowers. He got to the round of 16 in the CL. And he did this after losing two world class players.

Taijin_Kyofusho on May 24, 2011 at 9:07 am

I too think you’re being harsh on Emery. Valencia’s season might not have been sensational but surely it was a solid one. They could’ve easily been through in the CL against Schalke had they been more fortunate with their chances and of course they couldn’t have done a lot better in the league.
I wholeheartedly agree though on how hastily coaches are being sacked.In most cases they’re not given enough time to work on the team

Mati on May 24, 2011 at 2:59 pm

I know i’m being harsh on Emery, who in my opinion is La Liga’s second best Spanish coach. but do you think by his own standards he has done as good as he should have? Valencia gave him the criteria, he accomplished all that was asked of him. yet Emery has his own standards, he wants to be better than last season. Valencia have exited the Copa in a terrible way, lost their deserved lead in a Champions League R16 against an inferior opposition & dropped one too many points where they shouldn’t have. 3rd place is probably what the club wanted, but is it what Emery wanted? is it enough? I admire Emery & thats why I demand a lot out of him. its just that his players let him down sometimes

Barnesy10 on May 24, 2011 at 5:38 pm

Interesting take on Emery. There was a good report today on the various distribution of funds between the EPL clubs and La Liga. Apparently, Barca and Real make 12.5 times that of the bottom clubs, whilst Man Utd made 1.55 times more than West Ham.

Gotta be hard for the likes of Emery y Garrido (let alone Laudrup, Michel et al) battling against that sort of disparity.

For the domestic fans this must be interminable; but it’s likely that the global arm-chair population only care for Real and Barca when it comes to Spanish football, so it that sense, their ‘brand’ is enhanced – especially when these funds contribute to these two progressing to the latter stages of European competition.

To be honest, I think Benitez didn’t get a fair shake. People have to remember after he won the Club World Cup, he did have a few games in hand that could have put Inter back in the top 4 position. And although Benitez was the manager of the Inter side that lost to a very good Tottenham, it was Leonardo who was the manager of the side who got slaughtered at home by a very average Schalke team (BTW I am a Schalke fan). So, it is tough to give Benitez a grade since he was Inter’s coach for a very short time.

Yeah, he was trying to change Inter’s style and was not helped by all the injuries he had as well as the lack of investment shown from Moratti. Match that with the lack of effort and motivation from the players and then you get a manager that deserves more time.

Roman on May 23, 2011 at 7:17 pm

I think it works on for the Allegri veridict an impressive defensive record. With basically the same defensive players that Leonardo had at disposal, he achieved the best defense on the League by far, and on par with the best defenses in Europe.

It’s also worthy of note that from the 24 goals conceded in the League only 7 happened in the second half of the season (6 cleans sheets against the top 6 in the League). This shift since the mid-season problably is due to three facts: he succesfuly worked against the counter-attack goals the team were conceding; the decision to use a traditional DM in front of the defense instead of the deep-lying playmaker (granted he deployed Seedorf and Pirlo there a few times as a B-plan); and the arrival of Mark van Bommel (though Ambrosini were already succesfuly playing in front of the defense).

Also, by the winter he succesfuly overcome a worse injury crisis than the one that is said to have been the downfall of Benítez to keep Milan leading in Serie A.

Against him it works the UCL campaign, specially the poor performance in the first match x Tottenham.

Jorn on May 23, 2011 at 7:25 pm

I agree on Preud’homme. He has lost Janssen though, but FC Twente should mount another title challenge next year.

david on May 23, 2011 at 7:33 pm

ZM, who do you think will take the Chelsea post?

Marco Van Basten is rumored but I don’t think he’s good enough to be the Chelsea manager.

Isn’t Villas Boas likely? He may not want to leave Porto this early but he is such a talented manager and most importantly plays an attractive attacking football that Roman wants to see from Chelsea.

Mati on May 24, 2011 at 4:37 am

Van Basten is more than good enough, but I doubt he’ll succeed at Chelsea. he can implement a winning mentality with good football, but he’s going to clash with the big heads in the squad, & Chelsea have one too many big heads. also, the Chelsea squad is so old, its almost seems as if they’ll fall into the same trap AC Milan found themselves in. this may be pushing it, but Chelsea have come as far as they can with “Mourinho’s players”. remember, they were all good, but not great. in Mourinho’s system, the best of them came outmaybe they can’t function any other way? at least Van Basten would play a variation of 4-3-3/4-5-1

Boo on May 26, 2011 at 11:08 am

I don’t agree that van Basten is more than good enough as a manager. As the manager of Holland, he managed to alienate van Nistelrooij, van Bommel and Seedorf to the point that they resigned from international duty. This pattern of alienating people continued when he took over at Ajax, even causing his biggest fan Johan Cruijff to walk away. He frequently complained openly about the quality of his players, and spent a huge sum on transfers for players who rarely if ever ended up playing in the first team. A world class player rarely makes a world class manager later on, and van Basten certainly was no exception.

Mati on May 26, 2011 at 5:23 pm

I respect your opinion, but you have to look at why he had problems with his players. with RvN it was off-field problems, Seedorf wanted to be a definite starter, with MvB it was a clash of egoes, etc…unlike Scolari, Van Basten won’t be taking any nonsense from Chelsea’s players. after all that drama, Holland played the most entertaining football in Euro 2008, after Van Basten resructured his side’s game to play 4-2-3-1 & accomodate enough players who make the ball happy. Holland is a team of egomaniacs, & I strongly think Marco paved the way for the team’s harmony towards WC2010.

Ajax actually has a problem with its youth set-up, and has failed to produce exceptional dutch players since the days of Sneijder/VdVaart/De Jong/Heitinga, etc. Cruyff knows this, but again, it was a clash of egoes.

Boo on May 26, 2011 at 7:19 pm

I respect your opinion, but I don’t find losing 1 – 3 against a much weaker opponent very entertaining. Playing well is important, but if you lose a winnable game, you didn’t play well no matter which way you look at it.

Van Marwijk has been working with pretty much the same players. The drama off the field is gone, the team plays cohesively and with an actual game plan, and has been getting results, except of course that game against the one international side that is even better at this time.

Ajax has a problem with its youth academy, but the main problem isn’t necessarily the one Cruijff pointed out. Youth scouting has changed dramatically. Ten, fifteen years ago, if a Dutch youth talent wanted to be noticed by the likes of Man Utd, Barcelona, AC Milan or Real Madrid, he had to make himself noticed by playing in a European tournament for Ajax, PSV or Feyenoord. This is no longer the case. Big clubs are scouting in Holland and picking players up everywhere, even from the amateur leagues. You don’t need to go through Ajax to get to the premier league. The poor results and constantly changing management have also taken much of the shine off the Ajax brand. It has become a small, provincial brand, and the biggest talents are no longer necessarily thrilled and honoured by an offer from Ajax.

marc bd on May 23, 2011 at 7:50 pm

Usually refer to this site first when I try to learn about some tactics/strategies of my beloved sport. Once again good follow-up on an interesting article. I reckon if the breaking rumor of Gasperini replacing Mazzari at the helm of Napoli turns out to be true, then that could stand out as a similarly intriguing managerial appointment of this season.

Jorn on May 23, 2011 at 8:10 pm

Chelsea doesn’t need a tactician, they’ve got the material, they just need someone that makes Chelsea function as a unit. Except perhaps a trequartista

With many owners nowadays systematically placing and replacing managers, constantly searching for “better” ones, do you think that Hiddink will return to club coaching again before he retires all together? I know he’s comfortable with Turkey and is probably getting paid heartily as an “advisor” at Chelsea but the guy is a great tactician and he has proven he could win with a top club twice now. I certainly don’t want him take the job at Chelsea but I really would like to see him manage a club again.

Avram Grant is still a mystery for me, how did he get to this level? I know that we can’t judge over what we see (which is only 10% of his job) but it clearly seems one of those cases where a manager is hired thanks to a great job from is agent. And the fault of his campaign is not his, it’s from the one’s who hired him.

Keep the great work!

dw on May 24, 2011 at 3:28 pm

He got the Chelsea job because he was a crony of Abramovich. From that he acquired an underserved cachet for taking Chelsea to the Champions League final.

2/10 for his performance with West Ham is absurdly generous.

Richard on May 23, 2011 at 10:58 pm

Once more time, brilliant…

I agree with your analysis, my only doubt is Paulo Sérgio, 4/10 is too much…he had a good team, he failed totally.

Danish on May 23, 2011 at 11:03 pm

Ithink you’re a bit harsh on Laudrup – allthough I’m clearly biased. Mallorca had a weak squad to begin with IMO, and he had absolutely NO money all year. They could hardly afford the bus for away games. Besides it was VERY close in midtable i Spain – if the win one of their last 4 they finish 9th, which would have been a fantastic performance honestly.

Being a passionate Juve fan myself, I think that in CONTEXT (after last year’s disastrous season, Quag’s ACL injury, Paolo “Ashton Kutcher” De Ceglie broken kneecap, lack of money b/c our idiotic sporting director, Alessio Secco, wasted it all before he left), Delneri’s grade should be a 5. However, for Juve’s overall reputation of being the best everywhere against everyone, every way, as our glorious history shows, ye indeed then a 3 is correct.

But I think he did have the players, the fans, and the board behind him at a point. But it all just fell to pieces after Christmas, and he was tactically a little lost sometimes=( He wasn’t necessarily tactically inflexible/stubborn, just tactically uncreative. Antonio Conte, our ex-player/legend, is going to be our next coach… Let’s hope no repeat of Ciro Ferrara…

Gerhard on May 24, 2011 at 3:40 am

ZM what did you think about Javier Aguirre in Zaragoza? He finished 13th in La Liga and saved them from relegation. i think Aguirre did a good job, I would give him a 7/10 for going over my expectations. What mark would you give him?

JT on May 24, 2011 at 8:53 am

I give Aguirre 8/10 for revitalizing the worst squad in La Liga, avoiding almost sure relegation with only one good signing (Da Silva), all in such a short period of time.

Do you have a tactical preview of the CL final? If you have when it’s going to be published?
Thank you very much.

Lucas on May 24, 2011 at 1:37 pm

Ejoyed reading it, hope you ‘ll do it again this August

felix on May 24, 2011 at 3:33 pm

So given that there was an average score of a little over 4 is it fair to say that you were disappointed by the quality of the management in Europe or are you more interested in crap managers that good ones?

KD is the guy who comes in the 2nd half and steals Man of the Match. That guy makes us all look stupid.

Marco on May 24, 2011 at 4:22 pm

I thought you would have rated Mazzarri as well.

He got Napoli in Champions League after 21 years away from the main European club competition playing a trademark 3-4-2-1

inf on May 24, 2011 at 10:03 pm

Seems a bit harsh on Mou. Arguably isn’t Real under him probably now the 2nd or 3rd strongest team in Europe? To be honest i would have expected them to get to the CL final against any other team. Compared to last year that’s got to be some sort of achievement, he may have inherited an amazing team but he’s already made them step up a mark. As proven by this list, most new managers can’t even do any sort of improvement in such a small time.

Without Mou i imagine the La Liga 1st/2nd gap would have been even bigger this year. Ugly as the second set of Classico’s were at times, Real only conceded a single extra goal to Barca… prehaps suggesting that he’s getting closer to getting his team to match up to them. Did anyone really expect him to overthrow them in his first season? A 6/10 is seemingly just because of hype and extreme expectations.

It feels like people are criticizing his tactics based on solely those games as well; As if everyone else doesn’t play defensive against them (even Arsenal!), you are basically forced to somewhat. I expect a real title challenge next year i think.

Avram Grant may not have done a great job at west ham. but i’m sick of this stat about him being in bottom 3 last season too ( i.e 09/10 ). his squad was being sold all around him. the club were potentially going to fold any minute. he had to motivate a bunch of disparate foreigner loaners & youth players. i thought he did a decent job at pompey, and led them to an fa cup final ! west ham in that season finished 17th with 35 points. this season, they got 33pt’s. this media perception that he’s taken a decent mid table side down is rubbish. green & upson should never have been playing for england. no wonder england did so bad at the world cup ! . players he signed like Hitz and Ba actually looked good.

Redknapp is highly respected in the English game who was voted manager of the year last year and widely expected to become the next England national team manager.

At Tottenham success was measured by their best ever Premier League finish, reaching the quarter finals of the Champions League in their first appearance, and winning friends by their attacking style of play.

At Chelsea the targets are higher. A Premier League or Champions League trophy is essential to avoid the sack (as the excellent Ancelotti found out quite unfairly in the view of many).

Most of the players required to succeed are already in place at Stamford Bridge so Redknapp’s main task will be to motivate them, massage egos, and organise them on the pitch to get the best out of them. Whilst the lavish spending at Chelsea has slowed recently he should still have a transfer budget and the freedom to use it that was not available at Tottenham.

If the Spurs squad remains intact watching their results next season will be fascinating to see how much the loss of Redknapp impacts on the team and results. It is certain the new manager will need new signings among the strikers to have a chance of repeating the success of the past two years.

Predictions: Redknapp to have a successful one year at Chelsea with either the Premier League or Champions League trophy arriving at Stamford Bridge before he goes on to manage the national team.
Tottenham if they keep their stars and buy well in the transfer window should be fighting for a place in the top 4 next season. However if the strikers, and possibly goalkeeping, weaknesses are not addressed in the summer Spurs are likely to struggle in the league and revert to their ‘cup team’ history. Prediction 8th in the league and some good cup runs.

tyranitar on May 28, 2011 at 4:48 pm

Is mark for Allegri 8/10 and for Jose 6/10? I should write LOL. What gives? Did I miss something across the season? I’m pretty sure, about 10 marks are ok but the rest is not as good as it should be.

Of course I’m complaining the most about Mourinho mark, because I think he deserved for 7-8/10. Referee’s mistakes in CL semi-finals were crucial in Real Madrid’s road to the Wembley final – they should be there today and play this game at 20:45. Barcelona also deserved for success, but Real didn’t cheat – that is difference between these two teams.